It Was 60 Years Ago Today When The Beatles Landed At JFK

And my mom was there to greet them on the tarmac

February 7, 2024February 9, 2024 Ron Hart 0 Comments 1964, 60th anniversary, George Harrison, JFK Airport, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Queens, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, The Ed Sullivan Show van Show

The Beatles on the cover of the “Love Me Do” single on Tollie Records (Image: Discogs)

If there was anyone in history I could interview, it would be my mom.

She was a massive Beatlemaniac from the moment she heard them on the New York radio. Her life was changed by rock ‘n’ roll. In fact, the band had scored their first No. 1 hit in the United States a few days before The Beatles first arrived in America with “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”

And when my mom was 15, she had my grandfather drive her from their house in Levittown to JFK Airport in nearby Queens so she could catch a glimpse of John, Paul, George and Ringo emerge from that Pan Am Yankee Clipper Flight 101 on February 7, 1964. According to my cousin Patricia, my mom landed a spot in the entryway to the terminal, where she was so close to The Beatles as they walked by she was able to rip off one of the travel stickers from George’s luggage.

She was one of 3,000 fans who flooded JFK 60 years ago today, the volume of humanity crammed within such tight confines causing a near riot at the scene. McCartney was 21 at the time, Lennon and Starr both 23, and Harrison only 20 when they arrived in New York, an area that would become as synonymous with the Fab Four as their hometown of Liverpool in England.

“It was so exciting,” Starr declared in the 1995 Beatles Anthology documentary series. “On the plane, flying into the airport, I felt as though there was a big octopus with tentacles that were grabbing the plane and dragging us down into New York. America was the best. It was a dream, coming from Liverpool.”

McCartney has reflected on The Beatles’ first-ever trip to the U.S., which took place months after the assassination of president John F Kennedy, and said the band’s presence seemed to have “lifted” people.

McCartney, speaking with American actor Stanley Tucci about his recent photo exhibition, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes Of The Storm, felt as though The Beatles’ arrival served as a salve for a nation still in grief over the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“That was one of the big things for us,” he said. “We felt it like the whole world had felt it. We had really felt it, but then, it was a few months after that we went to America. We, without meaning to, lifted people.”

At the airport, the band engaged in a wild press conference shortly after landing, greeting a roomful of press that included legendary New York radio DJ Murray the K, who became fast friends with the Fabs as they continued to dominate American radio, especially in the Big Apple. In fact, Murray would dub himself “the Fifth Beatle” during his time on WINS-AM through the end of 1964.

Two days later, The Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, which we will be celebrating on Friday for its own 60th anniversary. It was estimated that 73 million people watched the program that night, including my mom and Uncle George, who was all of four years old at the time.

“All I could remember was seeing your mother with her face pressed right up against the television screen and screaming her face off,” he recalls.

Sullivan would immediately book the band again for two more appearances on the show before they headed back to England.

The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, The Beatles returned to Liverpool, leaving a whirlwind of estrogen-induced excitement in their wake.

It’s tough writing this knowing I had every opportunity to speak with my mom about seeing The Beatles land at JFK on February 7, 1964, or any of her other great adventures seeing this historic band during the height of Beatlemania. But instead, I allowed my perceived anger towards her for things beyond her control to get the best of me, thus preventing me from having a proper adult relationship with her. It is something I’ve gotta live with now that I’m old enough to recognize the error in my thinking.

But I am grateful to at least possess the knowledge that my mom was a part of rock history in real time, and thanks to her The Beatles will always be as close to my heart as she.